Google founder rails against anti-piracy bills

PIPA and SOPA will make US an 'oppressive nation'

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Google's Sergei Brin has expressed his shock and astonishment that the US Congress is currently considering two bills that he feels are a threat to free speech.

Brin, who co-founded Google along with CEO Larry Page, posted to his Google+ account that he felt the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) bills would put the US 'on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world'.

"…imagine my astonishment when the newest threat to free speech has come from none other but the United States," stated Brin.

Extraordinary powers

"Two bills currently making their way through congress -- SOPA and PIPA -- give the US government and copyright holders extraordinary powers including the ability to hijack DNS and censor search results (and this is even without so much as a proper court trial)," he continued

"While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don't believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world."

Wales, Hurley, Yang, Stone etc

"We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that underpins the internet," the letter says. "Let's not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs and founders the same opportunity we all had."

The two bills are both aimed at protecting US patent and intellectual property holders, but could feasibly have much farther-reaching consequences.

The founders letter suggests that passing the acts would have a 'chilling effect on innovation', deny website owners due process of law, hand censorship powers to the government and 'undermine security online'

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Global Editor-in-Chief

Patrick (Twitter) is Global Editor-in-Chief for techradar, and has been with the site since its launch in 2008. He is a longstanding judge of the T3 Awards, been quoted or seen on everything from the The Sun to Sky News and is on the #CoolBrands Council. He started his career in football, making him one of approximately one journalists to have covered both a World Cup final and an iPhone launch.